31P-MRS by whole body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems was used to assess the liver function of chirrotic patients.The patients who were diagnosed as chirrosis clinically were divided into three groups, 1) LC-1 (n=9) ; the patients who had chirrosis, 2) HCC (n=6) ; cancerous part of the liver of the patients whom were diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma clinically and 3) LC-2 (n=6) ; acancerous part of the liver of the HCC group. And we added 4) control (n=6) ; the patients who were diagnosed as having normal liver function. High energy phosphates were measured in these four groups.In the control group, Six major peaks were detected spectrographically. From high frequency zone, these were indentified as phosphomonoesters(PM), inorganic phosphate (PI), phosphodiester(PD), gamma-ATP, alpha-ATP, beta-ATP, Signal intensity was measured by height of the peaks. The ratio of means of PM/beta-ATP was 0.67<plus-minus>0.16 and that of Pi/beta-ATP was 0.90<plus-minus>0In the LC-1 group,
… More six major peaks were detected as well as control group. The ratio of means of PM/beta-ATP was 1.06<plus-minus>0.21, which was significantly higher(p<0.05) than in the control group. Pi/beta-ATP ratio of means was 1.12<plus-minus>0.25 and there was no difference as compared with the control grIn the HCC group, PM/betaーATP ratio of means was 1.18<plus-minus>0.33, which was significantly higher(p<0.05) than in the control group. The ratio of means of Pi/beta-ATP was 0.90<plus-minus>0.39, which was not significantly different as compared to the control grIn the LC-2 group, the ratios of means of PM/beta-ATP, Pi/beta-ATP were 1.03<plus-minus>0.34, 0.74<plus-minus>0.26 respectively. There was no significant differeConclusion. 1) In the LC-1 and the HCC group, phosphomonoesters was significantly higher than the control group. 2) As high energy phosphates could be measured both in the cancerous part and the acancerous part of the liver, in future 31P-MRS may play some role in the pre-oparative assessment of patients who have chirrosis. Less